Socket wrench



March 18, 1969 E. J. ONDECK SOCKET WRENCH Filed May 25, 1967 INVENTOR. 62/1162 J. 0/1/06 BY w Jaw ,4%w ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,433,108 SOCKET WRENCH Elmer J. Ondeck, 69 Akenside Road, Riverside, Ill. 60546 Filed May 23, 1967, Ser. No. 640,607 U.S. Cl. 81-121 Int. Cl. B25b 13/06, 13/58 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Background of the invention This invention relates to wrench sockets and to a method of making the same.

Such wrench sockets usually comprise a one-piece forged steel body formed at one end with a serrated aperture, ordinarily having twelve corners, for receiving various types of nuts or bolt heads of a particular general size and a square recess at the other end of a different radial size defining a shoulder between the recess for reception of a similar shaped end of a turning tool in a manner coextensive with the shoulder. At least one flat side of the square recess has a depression for reception of a spring-pressed ball on the end of the turning tool.

Wrench sockets have also been made with inserts for engagement of nuts or bolt-heads of a particular general size. Such inserts have been provided conventionally of steel for reducing the size of the serrated recesses or of plastic for electrically insulating the socket wrench from a nut or bolt.

Summary The present invention is directed to a socket wrench having a non-mar plastic insert having longitudinal sidewalls adapted to fully engage a like number of sidewalls in a wrench socket in sliding fit relationship and an inner cross-section having longitudinal sidewalls. The insert has the same number of outer sidewalls as the socket and the same number of inside walls as the nut with which it is used. The insert has 24 outside wall (or 12 corners mating with a conventional socket wrench) and provides in novel combination therewith six inside walls (or 6 points) for use with hexagonally headed nuts. By being adapted to engage a nut, bolt or the like having a like number of sidewalls, voids between the interior sidewalls and the nut are eliminated. This is to confine the plastic and hence to prevent plastic flow of the plastic insert.

An object of the present invention is to provide a wrench socket of the character described wherein at one end of the socket there is a recess for a turning tool and at the opposite end thereof a serrated aperture adapted to engage an insert having a recess therethrough whose inner cross-section is composed of one-fourth the number of longitudinal sidewalls as the exterior surface.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved plural part wrench socket which has durability comparable with a one-piece wrench socket.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved wrench socket which has no metal-to-metal contact between the socket and a nut or the like.

Another object of the invention is to provide an im- 3,433,108 Patented Mar. 18, 1969 proved wrench socket construction and method for producing the same.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved wrench socket having a mating serrated aperture adapted to engage an insert having a like number of serrations on its exterior cross-section.

Other objects, advantages and capabilities of the invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings showing a preferred embodiment of the invention.

On the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an exploded view illustrating the parts in vertical cross-section longitudinally therethrough and on a greatly enlarged scale of an improved wrench socket in accordance with the invention, the top part being the socket body and the bottom part being an insert for the same;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are top plan views on the same scale of the insert and socket body as viewed along the line 11-11 and III-IH, respectively of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-section corresponding to FIG. 1 illustrating the socket parts assembled as a unit; and

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of an alternative insert embodiment in cross-section and a plan view of a nut to he turned by the insert.

As shown in the drawings:

The principles of this invention are particularly useful when embodied in a wrench socket as illustrated in FIG. 1 wherein a wrench socket head 10 and an insert 11 are adapted for assembly in sliding fit relationship.

The head 10 is made from a length of cylindrical bar stock preferably of steel having an equal-sided serrated aperture 12 which is provided as by means of a broaching tool. The aperture 12 has twenty-four sides arranged in angularly disposed pairs defining twelve equal coplanar pairs of flat wall portions 13 extending longitudinally from one end of the head to approximately half the length thereof. The insert has twenty-four equal longitudinal flat sidewalls 17 corresponding to the wall portions 13 of the serrated aperture 12.

The head 10 has a square bore 14 extending longitudinally at the other end thereof to communicate with the serrated aperture 12. The wall portions or sides 13 extend for substantially the full length of the aperture 12 to a shoulder 16 and are adapted to engage the external walls 17 of the insert 11 in mating relationship.

The insert 11 has a central recess 18 therethrough of a hexagonal inner cross-section for receiving the regularly spaced sides and corners of a standard size hexagonal nut or bolt head in mating relationship. The length of the sidewalls 17 of the insert 11 are slightly greater than the depth of the aperture 12 to provide maximum steel support area for the plastic liner and still assure only plastic liner contact with the sides of the nut or bolt head.

The insert 11 may be made from a material such as glass filled polycarbonate, nylon or Delrin which is an acetal resin. The insert 11 has an outer diameter corresponding to the diameter of the aperture 12, but allowing for a snug sliding fit. It is desirable in practice to make the radial thickness of the insert 11 as small as possible to increase its useful life.

The insert 11 may 'be formed as a continuous extrusion whereby the outer sidewalls 17 would be formed simultaneously with the inner recess 18. This would be the most economical manufacturing method. The individual inserts would be cut oh. from the continuous extrusion in appropriate lengths. Alternatively, the insert 11 may be made as a molding or casting. This would be appropriate where the insert is required to have a special configuration, other than a generally regular polygon. In-

cluded in such special configurations would be inserts with tapers, cutouts, lips 'or flanges.

The square bore 14 is provided with a cylindrical recess 19. It is of standard size for receiving a similarly square end 20 of a standard turning tool 21. The end of the recess 19 provides a stop shoulder for engagement of a spring-pressed ball 22 on the square end 20 of the turning tool 21 inserted in bore 14.

Referring now to FIG. 4, the two parts 10, 11 provided above are easily assembled as a unit with the insert 11 received in the aperture 12 of the head 10. The assembled unit is then bonded together in a conventional manner for steel and plastic parts. Alternatively, the body and insert 11 may be in frictional engagement only to allow for removal after use.

In use of the assembled socket wrench, the insert 11 within the head 10 is applied to engage a nut (not shown). The operator of the wrench socket then engages the square end of the turning tool 21 in the square bore 14 of the head 10 until the spring-pressed ball 22 on the tool engages the recess 19 yieldingly to retain the turning tool 21 in place with respect to the wrench socket 10 and nut.

By turning the tool 21, the wrench socket 10 may be turned either for applying or removing the nut. The fact that there are no voids between the hexagonal inner surface 18 and the nut to be engaged is important in that the presence of voids would permit plastic flow of the insert 11 under torque loads used in tightening the nut. The absence of any void space precludes such plastic flow and insures that the plastic liner 11 will engage a hexagonal nut and be able to turn the nut without marring its surface or the surface on which the nut rests. It is especially contemplated here to use this plastic insert 11 in those situations where the finish of a metal nut or bolt is to be protected while this part is being secured or removed from its position.

Summarizing, the invention comprises the socket wrench head 10 having a twenty-four-sided, twelve point aperture 12 corresponding to the insert 11 which in turn has a recess having a six-sided six-point inner configuration. The plastic liner or adaptor 11 is constructed to cooperate with a nut slightly smaller in dimension than a nut properly fitting in the socket without the liner.

A critical limitation in the satisfactory manufacture and sale of plastic line-rs is precise fitting of the twenty-foursided or double-hexagonal inside surface 12 of the head 10 and the twelve-sided outer surface of the insert 11 so that no open space or void is allowed between the head and the insert which, as with the insert 11 and the nut being worked on, would result in a cold flow of plastic into the relieved areas of the insert 11 and head 10.

An alternative embodiment of the invention uses a molded or cast insert 31, FIG. 5, for engagement with a correspondingly shaped twelve-sided socket wrench (not shown). The insert 31 is adapted to engage a chromed nut 32 or the like. The nut 32 has a hexagonal turning surface 33, and forward and rear tapered portions 34 and 35, respectively. The rear tapered portion 35 is terminated by a circular portion 36 having a threaded opening therein (not shown) for engagement with a bolt.

The insert 31 has an interior configuration including a hexagonal surface 38 and tapered portion 40 corresponding to the hexagonal surface 33 and tapered portion 34 of the acorn inut 32.

The insert 31 has a twenty-four-sided exterior surface 42 which is adapted to engage a correspondingly shaped socket wrench in sliding fit relationship.

The plastic insert 31 incorporates the principles of the invention as to the prevention of marring the nut 32 being worked and having four times the number of exterior surfaces 42 as interior nut engaging surfaces 38.

As noted, preferred practice uses hexagonal nuts while standard sockets are 12 point. If square nuts are to be fastened a 4-point inside insert is used while the outside of the insert remains 12 pointed. The liner may be used with closed and/or box end wrenches having 12-point openings, as well as with the wrench illustrated. The plastic liner of the present invention may be used in nonmar situations and also where it is desirable that a dielectric be provided between a nut or bolt and a wrench socket.

Although minor modifications might be suggested by those versed in the art, it should be understood that I wish to embody within the scope of the patent warranted hereon all such embodiments as reasonably and properly come within the scope of my contribution to the art.

I claim as my invention: 1. In a combination with a socket wrench body having an aperture defined by a serrated wall having a plurality of corners each bounded by flat Wall portions of substantially identical size defining an included obtuse angle,

an insert of thin walled non-flowable plastic having an outer contour snugly received in reciprocal sliding mating relationship in said aperture and for receiving a bolt head, and having a recess defined by corners bounded by flat hexagonally arranged side walls having continuous planar contour between corners defining included like obtuse angles that are radially aligned with alternate corners of said corners of said serrated wall, said side walls being marginally opposed adjacent to their recess corners by the coplanar wall portions of alternate ones of said aperture corners in closely spaced overlapping and parallel relationship with respect thereto, and being opposed in a radial direction at their mid portions by the wall portions of the remaining ones of said aperture corners which terminate at the respective coplanar wall portions and define included acute angles with respect to the respective side walls, and i said insert completely and solidly filling in confined relationship the space between said aperture and a bolt head received in said recess.

2. The combination called for in claim 1 in which said obtuse angles of said corners of said aperture and recess are and the number of aperture corners is 12 and the number of said recess corners is 6.

3. The combination called for in claim 1 in which said socket wrench body has an internal shoulder engaged by said insert at its inner end supporting same against dis placement at its inner end.

4. A wrench socket as recited in claim 1 wherein the plastic of said insert is selected from the group consisting of glass-filled polycarbonate, nylon and acetyl resin.

5. A wrench socket as recited in claim 1 wherein said serrated aperture has four times the number of sidewall surfaces as the number of sidewalls on the interior of said insert.

6. A wrench socket as recited in claim 1 wherein said insert is thin-Walled between parallel opposed faces.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 663,421 12/1900 Daniels 81-l85 X 668,545 2/1901 Sayers 8l185 X 2,337,368 12/1943 Bohler 81-485 2,832,245 4/1958 Burrows 81-125 3,087,364 4/1963 Witmer 81-121 X 3,322,423 5/1967 Popow et al. 269274 MILTON S. MEHR, Primary Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R. 

